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One of my dealings with a USBGF director and match recording

Posted By: Daniel Murphy
Date: Friday, 4 February 2011, at 3:28 a.m.

In Response To: One of my dealings with a USBGF director and match recording (Rich Munitz)

Rich writes: These current unannotated matches may be a product that some view as not worth paying a dime for, but it happens to be the single most accessed area of the USBGF website. Apparently, there are many that do see value there.

Guess I'll "beat the dead horse" a bit more. Nobody argues that unannotated matches are valueless or uninteresting. Rather, that having a collection of matches at USBGF open to all viewers might do more to promote both US backgammon and the USBGF. That, and restricting access to records of recent ABT tournament matches to paid USBGF members only when other federations make notable matches played by their members public to everyone without cost suggests that maybe "Unannotated matches!" isn't the best answer to "What can we offer to encourage more people to join our organization?"

There are 23 matches here at the Danish federation website. And about 20 more (maybe some overlap) posted in the DBgF discussion forum. And 19 more at the website of one of the Danish clubs. The Norwegian federation website has 14 matches from 2007 to 2010, and 21 more from 2001 to 2004, which were on the NBGF site before a horrible hard drive crash, are archived here. Also, the Swedish federation's site has 10 matches. And of course there's nonfederation Hardy Hübener's archive of 117 international matches. We're all glad none of these sites restrict access to members only, right?

Believe me, I understand that USBGF is not in the same position as some federations in other countries, and I know very well how much work goes into annotating a match and getting it online. But once that's done, it's just data, a record of a publicly played match, really basic information of interest to everyone. I understand, too, that people have volunteered to record matches in order to promote USBGF, so if USBGF members are going to have first crack at them, I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the idea. But I'd hope the matches eventually (and sooner, rather than later) enter the public domain.

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